Volunteers along with homeless men and women in downtown Charleston are in the process of building a model “tiny house.”
The goal is to build a small portable home, suitable for one person to live in, all from scrap or donated lumber.
Jerry Godus, better known in tent city as “Grizzly,” says there’s got to be a better way to live for the city’s homeless.
“All night long you can’t get any sleep. It’s a struggle because there’s no security,” explained Godus.
Jerry and a new community group called, “Tiny House Fit For a King” are working on something better than a tent.
“It was time to pick up a hammer and hit some nails and see what happened,” said project organizer William Hamilton.
They’re gathering scrap and donated lumber and working on a tiny house to show the city.
“I mean there’s enough out there to build dozens of these houses right now,” said Hamilton. “There are people that wake up in the morning in these tents and go to work every day.”
This weekend, the city of Charleston has provided a small, city owned lot where organizers from “Tiny House Fit For a King” are constructing a model house.
Friday afternoon people began to donate lumber for the project, which is being built off North Nassau Street.
Jessy Harper and his wife founded the organization, Operation Veterans Relief, and dropped off several truckloads of lumber on Friday.
The house will eventually be studied by city officials as part of the forthcoming Blue Ribbon Citizens Panel on Homelessness.
The City of Charleston has reached an agreement with members of the “Tiny House Fit for a King Project” to provide a small, city-owned lot where the organization’s volunteers will be able to construct and exhibit a Model Tiny House over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend.
On Tuesday, the group will release the Tiny House to City officials, who will then move it to a City facility where it will be studied as part of the City’s forthcoming Blue Ribbon Citizens Panel on Homelessness.
The agreement was reached late yesterday, after City officials received a letter from the South Carolina Department of Transportation stating that SCDOT had not given permission for the planned Tiny House Model to be built on its property. Initially, the Tiny House Fit for a King Project had intended to build its model on a section of land owned by SCDOT.
Among other things, the signed agreement between the Tiny House Project and the City states that the City property, located at 342 North Nassau Street, will be accessible to the group from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm from January 15-18 “for the purpose of constructing and exhibiting a temporary Model Tiny House … no larger than 8 x 12 feet and no taller than 10 feet. Activities on the Property in connection with the construction of the Model Tiny House may include educational classes and community discussions…. The Property shall be maintained in good and clean condition, and returned to its condition as it existed prior to its use.”
Charleston city spokesman, Jack O’Toole told News 2, “The city is committed to working with all our citizens to find solutions to the problem of homelessness in our community. This model demonstration project is a small but meaningful step in that process…”
